|
Beware! Your childs reading may be worse than you think!
Reading problems are debilitating to a childs success in school, and may seriously hamper his chances of ever working his way up in the world. According to the statistics approximately 44% of fourth grade students are illiterate and only 25% are reading at an acceptable level!
This article explains how to identify reading problems, what causes reading problems, and presents a possible solution.
Reading is regarded as the most important skill that a child must acquire at school, because one must learn to read in order to be able to read to learn. Reading problems are therefore debilitating to a childs success in school, and may seriously hamper his chances of ever working his way up in the world.
The media reports in this country often focus on the high illiteracy rates that plague our nations schools. They are alarming since they indicate that many of our children are failing to learn to read. In a national study in 1998, the National Assessment Governing Board tested students nationwide and rated their reading abilities at four levels: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. Thirty-eight percent of fourth grade students were rated Below Basic. In the same study, only 31% of students were at or above the acceptable level of Proficient. Considering that 11% of students were untestable due to learning disabilities or language barriers, it implies that approximately 44% of fourth grade students are illiterate and only 25% are reading at an acceptable level!
These sobering results also held true in a 1992 study of 26,000 adults by the same group (NAEP 1992). Results showed that 48% of the adults were reading at Level 2 or lower, barely literate. Only three percent of all adults reached the highest level, Level 5.
Indeed there is a reading crisis in America!
HOW TO IDENTIFY A READING PROBLEM
The term dyslexia" is often used to describe a severe reading problem. It was coined from the Greek words dys" meaning ill or difficult and lexis" meaning word. The pointers below are an indication that a person may have dyslexia or a reading problem and therefore needs help:
| | - One of the most obvious -- and one of the most common -- telltale signs is reversals. People with this kind of problem often confuse letters like b" and d", either when reading or when writing, or they sometimes read (or write) words like rat" for tar," or won" for now."
|
| | - Another sure sign, which needs no confirmation by means of any form of testing, is elisions, that is when a person sometimes reads or writes cat" when the word is actually cart."
|
| | - The person who reads very slowly and hesitantly, who reads without fluency, word by word, or who constantly loses his place, thereby leaving out whole chunks or reading the same passage twice, has a reading problem.
|
| | - The person may try to sound out the letters of the word, but then be unable to say the correct word. For example, he may sound the letters c-a-t" but then say cold."
|
| | - He may read or write the letters of a word in the wrong order, like left" for felt," or the syllables in the wrong order, like emeny" for enemy," or words in the wrong order, like are there" for there are."
|
| | - He may spell words as they sound, for example rite" for right."
|
| | - He may read with poor comprehension, or it may be that he remembers little of what he reads.
|
| | - The person may have a poor and/or slow handwriting.
|
HOW TO OVERCOME A READING PROBLEM
To overcome a reading problem -- or dyslexia as a severe reading problem is often referred to -- it is important to understand that learning is a stratified process, meaning that one skills needs to be properly mastered before other subsequent skills can be learned.
If you present a child who has never learned to count with a mathematical problem, he wont know what to do because he cannot interpret it. In the same way, there are also certain skills and knowledge that a child must have acquired first, before it becomes possible for him to benefit from a course in reading. Foundational skills like concentration, visual discrimination, accurate observation and memorizing, skills of association, visual memory and lateral interpretation all form the foundation of good reading. All these skills are employed constantly while a person is reading, but a good reader is unaware of these events because they have been automated.
These foundational skills are functions that should be taught to children during their infant years. If a child has not mastered these basics he or she will have reading, spelling or writing problems as a result. The only solution is to retrace the steps to the point where the child has missed out and go forward from there.
The Audiblox program is the result of 25 years of intensive research on the prevailing problems related to reading and learning. This program develops a variety of foundational learning skills, including concentration, perception, memory, and logical thinking. It has proven to be extremely successful when applied for most of the problems that abound in schools at present.
With the lives and futures of so many children at stake, parents should not waste time in making sure that the reading ability of their child is adequate. Parents, who wish to ascertain whether their child is experiencing difficulties with reading, can themselves conduct a very simple test to determine whether there is any reason for alarm. Ask your child to read a short passage from his or her school reader. Select a passage that the child has not read before. Watch out for any of the pointers mentioned above, such as reversals or elisions. Afterwards, ask your child a few simple questions on the passage, to test if he or she was able to comprehend what has been read. If your child has a reading problem, do not waste time -- seek help!
*******
Parents, who suspect that the reading ability of their child is below standard, can visit the Audiblox website at audiblox2000.com for help.
|
